


Alone In Our Gardens

by sliceslider1



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon), Steven Universe - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fix-It, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-10 02:53:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20520764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sliceslider1/pseuds/sliceslider1
Summary: Spoilers for the Steven Universe MovieSpinel was alone. She supposed this wasn’t a new development, after all the game she and Pink Diamond were playing left her alone for quite some time.





	1. The Garden

Spinel was alone. She supposed this wasn’t a new development, after all the game she and Pink Diamond were playing left her alone for quite some time.

But this loneliness was new; before she was waiting for Pink (her affectionate name for Pink Diamond, she had smiled so widely when she first called her that!). Now she was listless.

It was a new feeling, she thought to herself, one she was quickly becoming acquainted with. She stumbled over to the fractured projector and stared at it. The buttons were lifeless and cracked, but quickly sprung to life with only a few presses. Not all of them worked but she was still able to watch the message again. And again. And again. And again.

After what must have been the thousandth run through Spinel slunk to the ground, deflating and uncoiling all at once like a rubber balloon. She lay there in a heap for some more time, no longer able to stand, and thought.

She thought of many things: how fun her games with pink had been! Or at least they had been fun to her… maybe she failed? Perhaps she wasn’t fun enough? No. That’s ridiculous she played all her games perfectly, always had a jape up her sleeve, always a prank on hand. So, it can’t have been her. Pink had broken the rules after all! She did her part!

She screamed, an incoherent, broken, wail. Then she screamed some more. She found she quite enjoyed screaming, having been quiet for so long making any noise at all certainly had some draw to it.

“IT’S NOT FAIR,” she shouted, “NOT FAIR AT ALL!”

She sprung to her feet, legs coiling up to give her extra bounce and squeak, and started to storm around the pillars, making figures of 8 between them.

“How come _he_ gets to decide everything is ok? How come everyone else in the galaxy has peace and I don’t? Why am I the only one left alone and hurt? It’s not fair! NONE OF THIS IS FAIR.”

She came to a sudden stop, her body vibrating with the jarring shock,

“Am I the only one left alone? If they don’t know about me…” She turned to the stars above her, “How do they know they haven’t missed anyone else?”


	2. The Telepad

The garden had long since fallen into a state of utter disgrace, weeds and roots littered the once neatly maintained floor, and the hedges that Spinel and Pink had once darted between in their playful chases had bulged and expanded into formless masses of thicket and branch. This did not stop spinel from pacing unconsciously on old, half remembered routes.

She needed a plan, she thought to herself, a really great plan that she could use to… To… She wasn’t sure yet, but that was step one of her plan! She knew what she wanted: she wanted people to smile. It was her purpose after all, and she enjoyed it. She knew that some games would not cheer up the people who she wanted to bring smiles to, after all she was like them, and games would not help her.

There was a thud as she bumped into the communications projector, unthinking she had wondered back to were she had started her journey of introspection. Thinking back, she could remember that it not only received messages, but sent them too. She slinked upwards from her fallen position and stared at the controls, they were foreign to her, she was not a technical gem but one of joy and gaiety. She had no idea how it worked.

Her shoulders slumped down slightly and she turned back to face the garden, preparing to pace again, but then she saw it, something glinting in the corner of her vision: the Telepad.

‘Telepad’ was a little something she had come up with for Pink’s amusement, she frowned at the thought of her.

Springing forwards she landed at the base of the stairs before bounding up like a reverse slinky and coming face to face with the Telepad. A deep breath in, a deep breath out (she did not have to breath but found the action calming, Pink seemed to like it too, so she had always made sure to do it), then a step forward into a beam of light.

Traveling via teleporter always felt special to Spinel, she only ever did it to get to and from the garden, only ever with Pink.

The other end had in the centre of a large, windowless room that once served as Pink Diamond’s antechamber. From where she stood, she could see a sliver of Pink’s old room, spotless and unchanged as if it hadn’t been lived in in years.

She shook her head frantically and spun on her heel to face the other door that led into the palace’s halls, this door was not open a crack. It was sealed shut.

This was of course no barrier to Spinel, who slid through the hairline crack where the 2 doors met as if they were wide open. Now in the hallway she faced where she knew the exit used to be, she needed a plan, but to plan she would need information and there was only one place to covertly gather that: the general gem populace.

She stretched her face, preparing her most charming smile and most adorable expressions. She had a long solar cycle ahead of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There isn't going to be any upload schedule, as I feel like using my chapter breaks as actual chapters, rather than denoting where an update happened, if that makes sense. This is partially to avoid pacing issues that come with uploading in the usual fashion and partially to allow me to do what ever I want whenever I want.


	3. The Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you told me i had to write good dialogue or die I would have no choice but to cease living. I'm very sorry.

****

Spinel’s face hurt, jaw ached, and hands cramped, but it was worth it: she had a plan. Pink Diamond was on some backwater called “Earth” and didn’t seem inclined to leave any time soon, which suited Spinel just fine as step one of her plan was to give Pink a piece of her mind! Step two was still in the works but she figured that it would come to her at some point later and was therefore not worth fretting over.

Of course, getting to Earth was no easy feat, not connected to Homeworld by telepad at all, Spinel was caught between a rock and a hard place. So, she stole a ship.

The theft itself was startlingly easy: tap the guard on one shoulder, slide past the other way, enter the ship through the whisper quiet airlocks. Piloting had been made simpler in past six thousand years, especially in what appeared to be some kind of supply ship, you just stuck your hands into the goo and the ship took off, the tingling was odd but Spinel was able to put up a good stand in a tickle fight, so she could easily bear it.

What was difficult, was getting off Homeworld. Each and every ship needed an identity, one only known to the captain and the communications officer, one she did not now.

In light of this information she had decided she was just going to warp into deep space and see what happened.

‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ she thought as she stuck her hands into the controls and activated the engines.

The ship lurched to life as if suddenly woken from slumber, its bulky hull grinding against the landing struts that formerly held it in place, the air around it rippled and stretched, the air seeming to bleed heat and light before the ship was subsumed by the glow and sped off into the distance.

Several hours of travelling later Spinel decided that she was far enough from Homeworld to check where earth actually was. It was close. _Very close._

The ship’s auxiliary thrusters slowly spun it in the cold vacuum of space, inching around to face its target, each second frayed at Spinel’s nerves, her foot tapped all of its own accord as her fingers drummed out a jaunty beat against the ship’s controls that did little to calm her down. She was so close.

Once more the ship’s engines hummed to life, light spilling forth from the vents, bathing the whole ship in light before it sped on to its destination.

Earth was not a terrible looking place, Spinel decided. It had some nice colours going on, a good bit of green, quite a lot of blue and a giant blemish of a ship.

The Diamond Authority’s ship. That was where _he_ was. Where she wanted to be.

She guided her ship down behind a small crest in the ground and stepped out. The ground felt familiar, like in the garden. She paused, a frown growing on her face, this was all like the garden, this is what she was _abandoned for. _With her fury reignited she stormed towards the Diamond’s ship. To where Pink would surely be.

Spinel was losing her nerve, she could hear them now, all of them, all of his new friends, all of the Diamonds. But she could not back out now, not when she had come so far, and committed so many crimes (really it was just one crime, but Spinel was an avid rule follower all her life and was not used to the ways of a criminal). She sucked in a breath and walked into eyeline of the gems.

“Well, well, well, well, well, if it isn’t Steven,” her voice grating, her once exuberant cheer having long since drained out “Fancy seeing you here.”

The silence was thick and heavy, Spinel used this opportunity to get a good look at the other gems. There was Steven, two gems matching the descriptions of Garnet and Amethyst, and- She locked up, her eyes meeting Pink’s pearl.

“What? It can’t be-“ Pearl started.

“Oh, but it can and is,” Spinel jumped in “It’s so good to see you Pearl, I honestly wasn’t expecting to see on Earth. With him.” She let out a mirthless chuckle. “She took you with her, didn’t she?”

“Well of cour-“ Pearl was cut off again.

“Silly me it should be _OBVIOUS_ that her precious pearl would come with her. But her best friend?” Spinel took a bounding step forwards, into the centre of the semicircle that had formed, “I got left in a garden, told to stay put, to not move until she returned. She never did though. Did you, Steven?”  
Steven looked taken aback, “I’m sorry,” he made a placating hand gesture, “But I don’t know who you are.”

Spinel’s eyes widened; she could scarcely believe what she was hearing.

“That’s… That’s Pink’s spinel,” Blue Diamond’s was scarcely above a whisper “One of her lost treasures.”

“Lost? LOST?” her voice was hoarse, “WELL GOLLY GEE! IF I KNEW I WAS LOST THEN I WOULDN’T BE ANGRY! IF I KNEW I WAS ‘LOST’ THEN IT WOULD HAVE BEEN CLEAR THAT THE SIX THOUSAND YEARS I SPENT ALONE WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN FOR NOTHING!” she sucked in air, readying herself for another scream, but paused, “What do you mean treasures _plural_?”


	4. The Ark: B side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Temporarily leaving Spinel, don't worry she will be back next chapter.

Kaath was alone. He supposed this was not a new development, as before he went to sleep, he was the last living member of his species. They had taken him and another of his people before his planet as he knew it was truly and irreversibly destroyed. She died within a week. He was the only one left.

His claws clicked against the hard floors of the labyrinthine halls as he patrolled. More lights were out than there were in his last patrol, the whole place was falling apart, it had been since he had woken up.

His patrol took him across the accessible parts of the… whatever he was on. He checked the armoury, now cold and silent, the ice chamber, where he had woken up, the plant and fish rooms, luckily still working or he would’ve starved days ago, and finally back to the small supply room in which he had made his home. The whole place was falling apart, sometimes he considered turning his glaive into himself, just to skip the agonizing wait. He never considered it for long.

A good hunter must have patience.

After his patrol he takes his glaive, his prized possession, and practices with it, the leather grip fitting perfectly in his prosthetic claw, his three fingers tightening with an uncomfortable squeak and grind. The building wasn’t the only thing falling apart.

Taking tools to his own arms was an option, but only because he needed them. He was far from qualified to fix his prosthetics, while working on them he supposed that he _was _the most qualified to work on them.

His routine was easy enough, much easier than hunting in the wilds at least, but it was dull. Too much time to think, for his mind to wander. It was becoming harder to keep sharp, whether through lack of sleep, it had been some time since he had seen the sun, or malnutrition he was slower than he used to be and he felt it in every fumble of his weapon or every time he mangled his mane while trying to braid it.

A good hunter must remain vigilant. He could not allow himself to slip.

On his fourteenth patrol he noticed a change: one of the doors, normally sealed shut and glowing, had fallen dark and was open a crack. He could barely contain his excitement; his glaive was in his claws before he had even thought to unsheathe it. Jamming the butt into the crack he started to pry the door open, and slowly, grinding against its locks, it did.

The smell of sweet, wet rot hit him all at once and he had to hold his mandibles closed with a claw to stop himself retching. It was another ice room, glass tubes containing thawing bodies lined the walls, stretching upwards into darkness. Several of the tubes had shattered, the bodies spilling out onto the floor and releasing their putrid scent.

There was another door at the end of the room, he rushed over, deftly stepping around the bodies, (Oh, Star above the bodies) and forced it open with his glaive. Another hallway stretched out before him, he took a few steps in, just out of eyeline of the corpses and pulled out his journal and a stick of charcoal, the texture of the cover and faint scent of leather was comforting.

Flicking it open to a page with a map sketched on it he started making additions, noting distances and broken lights, before picking a direction and walking down the hall. All information, no matter how disgusting, was good information.

A good hunter is always prepared.

By his seventeenth patrol he had seen all the new halls had to offer. It was largely more of the same, with 2 rooms of note: some kind of lab, with shattered glass containers and chemicals that left hissing puddles when he poured them out, and an observation deck. He had thought that he was in a building before this, perhaps a prison on his home planet or a zoo. He was wrong. So terribly wrong.

Staring out into the endless void of space Kaath came to the realisation that up until this point he had no idea how alone he was. But it would be okay, he had found more food and water, enough to start a stockpile, he had his journal; the sum of his and his mother’s knowledge on everything, on life, on death, on the hunt.

He was a good hunter, and a good hunter would survive no matter what.


	5. The Ark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow AO3 does not like google docs does it. Removed all the paragraphs i put in

Spinel paced the bridge of her ship, which now floated just behind the ninth planet from the Earth’s star; she was still reeling from the last few hours. First the Diamonds reveal that there were _ others, others like her _ and then they have the utter audacity to ask her to live with them, to make it so she wasn’t alone anymore, insisting that she wasn’t just a replacement.

She wasn’t naive anymore, she knew what they wanted: a toy to use up and throw away. She was a free gem now, and needed a new look to match it.

An hour later and she was done, her once heart shaped pigtails had become ragged points that sprung out of her head, the upper part of her dress was a dark purple and her shoes were pointier. Overall she was much taller, spikier, and in her opinion, more threatening.

Turning to the console she begun on the new step in her plan: find the other “lost treasures”. She had no leads, she had immediately left the diamonds upon being… propositioned like that. The ship had a basic map in it, with brief descriptions of each colony, planet and station. There was no way to search for anything, at best the computer pulled up a list, ordered alphabetically by name. 

Hours were wasted searching that list, endless staging points and military outposts before she found one: an archive. she set her course, and rolled new shoulders before the light of the engines outgrew all the other lights and she blasted off.

Arriving at the archive was uneventful, shortly before reaching the planet she slowed the ship to a crawl and cut all radio contact, touching down on the dark side of the planet.

Slinking into a well lit facility she followed the signs to the diamond section of the archives, over half of the data was stored in an ancient quartz based format, placed neatly in rows and columns, organised by date. She quickly found the relevant section of time, well the start of it at least. There was a lot to comb through.

Six hours into the search Spinel was starting to regret undertaking her task, every little thing the diamonds said or did was recorded, every meaningless action every pointless moment. Then she stumbled upon something, something about Pink Diamond, something about conservation. She pushed the lead further, her public upset at the destruction of indiginous life (Spinel scoffed at this, what did she care of other people?), and a place made to keep her happy, a place that was decommissioned shortly after her supposed death at the hands of Rose Quartz. A place called The Ark. Spinel knew at once she had to go there.

Rushing back into her ship she punched in its last known coordinates and immediately started up the warp engines, making no effort to hide her escape as she did with her approach, and started the journey to the first “lost treasure”. Well, the first other than herself, she supposed. She could barely contain her excitement.

Upon seeing The Ark, she deflated. It was a shambles, chunks of metal been ripped off of the main structure, leaving gaping holes in the hull of the station, which now orbited a sad little white dwarf.

She coiled up her hands into a telescope to get a better look at the place, scanning along the windows that were still lit, searching for anything that could- There, at an observation deck, she spotted movement. Her ship easily pulled up next to the airlock closest to the movement, and she entered The Ark.

The first thing that hit her was the smell, reeking of copper and a thick, musty stench that she couldn’t place. She walked through the halls, evidence of life was all around her, debris swept to the side to clear a path down the middle of the hall, the plants in the rooms labelled “hydroponics chamber” were growing in neat little rows, with bags of “plant food” lying in careful stacks next to them.

She heard the clicking before she saw it, rythmic noise, almost musical in its percussive nature. It was taller than her by a good few feet, perhaps even more if its back wasn’t hunched, its whole body was covered in a thick, brown, knobbly armour, its shoulders and back adorned with matted brown fur with what looked like half a braid left in a tangle. It had 4 arms, the 2 on the right ended in 3 fingered hands with sharp claws, one on the left had a rusted metal contraption instead of a hand, the other ended in a stump.

Its eyes were yellow beads, glowing behind its thick brow ridge, instead of a mouth it had horrendous mandibles that moved slightly with each ragged breath it took. Upon seeing her it froze.

“Hi,” she started “I’m Spinel, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” she stuck out her right hand in an overly excited fashion. The creature simply stared at it.

She held her hand there longer, the creatures eyes shifted upwards, locking with hers.

“It’s uh,” she felt nervous, she hadn’t felt nervous in a very long time, “It’s a hand shake, it shows you aren’t armed, you just grab my hand with yours and we shake them.” she smiled at this point, trying to not let her fear show in her eyes.

“But that’s not likely to be true, is it?” the creature’s voice was skittering and hushed, a thick accent adorned its words, popping its ‘t’s in a sharp staccato. “ I have seen your kind pull weapons from nowhere.”

Its voice unsettled Spinel, the words it spoke sounded foreign coming out of its mouth, though she understood it perfectly. She dropped her hand.

“Well we can skip the handshake then, what’s your name?” she tried to inject some cheer into her voice, but was having trouble under its piercing gaze.

“I am Kaath” it surveyed her for a moment in silence, “Why are you here? all your kind left long ago.”

“Well that’s exactly why I am here! You see I was abandoned too so I’m trying to round up all the people that were lost so they don’t have to be lonely anymore. So they don’t have to be lonely like i was.”

The creature, no, Kaath stared at her impassively before speaking “Come, we shall discuss this over food and drink, as is customary.” He turned on his heel and walked briskly down the corridor, leaving spinel scrambling to catch up.

**Author's Note:**

> My first ever fic, written because I felt that Spinel had so much potential and in classic SU fashion she was just "fixed" like that, by the diamonds no less.  
I endeavor to make her fix herself, perhaps not in a healthy way but she will be more than a plaything.


End file.
